Everyone in the NBA world was surprised when All-Star big man DeMarcus Cousins elected to sign for the taxpayer mid-level exception with the Golden State Warriors. Since then, the bewilderment has calmed to some degree but, in some circles, there are people still seeking answers as to how it all came to be.
Recently, Warriors GM Bob Myers visited with Greg Papa and Bonta Hill on 95.7 The Game and shed some additional light on how the negotiations went. (h/t Amico Hoops)
“But we got the call and I just said, ‘Look. We don’t have anything more,’ because we’ve talked about other high-level free agents and the thought from their agent was, ‘Can you do a sign-and-trade? Can you get to a bigger number?’ And I kind of said, ‘Look, our roster is what it is. To move that many pieces around, to create $10 million in room, or $15 (million), it’s just prohibitive, I don’t want to waste your time.’
“So I thought that’s where the conversation was going … and I said to him, ‘We don’t have the money that you’re probably commanding out there.’ And this is the moment it became real — he said, ‘We understand what you have.’ And I said, ‘Well we only have the taxpayer mid-level.’ And then when he said, ‘I know,’ that’s when I knew it was real. They were very serious about it and they never really wavered.”
It isn’t overly stunning to note that Myers did not expect Cousins to be amenable to Golden State’s available means to acquire him and, during an earlier portion of the same interview, the front office executive noted that the team “had been preserving our taxpayer mid-level exception for somebody that might fall through the cracks.” At that point, they were centering on potential wing targets but, in short, the stars aligned and Cousins was already aware of his new organization’s salary cap limitations when putting together an offer.
Because Cousins won’t be available to play the entire season, it is possible that the Warriors are only getting a run-of-the-mill bargain on his contract rather than an unimaginable heist. Regardless, not even Golden State’s principal basketball decision-maker expected their modest exception to lure Cousins to Oakland.
